A charter roll is an administrative record created by a medieval
chancery that recorded all the
charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
s issued by that office.
Origins
In medieval
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, King
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
in 1199 established a fixed rate of fees for the sealing of charters and
letters patent
Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...
. It was to keep track of these fees that the first Charter Roll was started (as a fee book) in 1199,
under the
Chancellorship of
Hubert Walter
Hubert Walter ( – 13 July 1205) was an influential royal adviser in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries in the positions of Chief Justiciar of England, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor. As chancellor, Walter b ...
. The Roll thereby also kept track of all charters that had been issued by the government – the letters patent being swiftly hived off into the
patent rolls
The patent rolls (Latin: ''Rotuli litterarum patentium'') are a series of administrative records compiled in the English, British and United Kingdom Chancery, running from 1201 to the present day.
Description
The patent rolls comprise a register ...
.
[ Instead of keeping the records in a register or book form, they were written on sheets of ]parchment
Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...
stitched together into long rolls to form a roll for each year.
Minority hiatus
During the minority of Henry III of England
Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry a ...
, no perpetual grants could be made by the Crown, so that the Charter Rolls were in abeyance until 1227.
Publication
The Charter Rolls for the years 1199 to 1216 were published as abbreviated Latin texts (in a near-facsimile
A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, Old master print, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from ...
of the manuscripts, employing a special "record type
Record type is a family of typefaces designed to allow medieval manuscripts (specifically those from England) to be published as near-facsimiles of the originals. The typefaces include many special characters intended to replicate the various s ...
" typeface) by the Record Commission
The Record Commissions were a series of six Royal Commissions of Great Britain and (from 1801) the United Kingdom which sat between 1800 and 1837 to inquire into the custody and public accessibility of the state archives. The Commissioners' work ...
in 1837, in a large folio
The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
volume entitled ''Rotuli Chartarum in Turri Londinensi asservati'', edited by T. D. Hardy. Calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
s (summaries) of the rolls from 1226 to 1516 were published in six volumes by the Public Record Office
The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...
between 1903 and 1927. Historians use the acronym ''Cal. charter R.'' for those published in calendar form.
See also
* Hanaper
Hanaper, properly a case or basket to contain a "hanap" ( O. Eng. ''kneels'': cf. Dutch ''nap''), a drinking vessel, a goblet with a foot or stem; the term which is still used by antiquaries for medieval stemmed cups. The famous Royal Gold Cup ...
* Pipe Rolls
* Patent roll
The patent rolls (Latin: ''Rotuli litterarum patentium'') are a series of administrative records compiled in the English, British and United Kingdom Chancery, running from 1201 to the present day.
Description
The patent rolls comprise a register ...
Citations
References
*
*
*
*
External links
National archives, Charter Rolls
{{short description, Medieval English administrative documents recording charters
1199 establishments in England
Medieval charters and cartularies of England
Medieval documents of England
Medieval English law
Medieval manuscripts
Collection of The National Archives (United Kingdom)